Methods and systems for optimizing engagement with a social network

ABSTRACT

Techniques to increase engagement with a social networking system. In one embodiment, activities are prioritized based on relatedness to a user. References associated with at least a portion of the prioritized activities are created. The references are categorized into a plurality of types. The reference types may include notifications, friend identifications, and top stories. The references are embedded in digest communications for the user. Descriptive information about the activities are omitted from the digest communications. Digest communications for the user are provided during a time period when the user is not engaged with the social networking system. Notifications for a user are ceased when a level of engagement of the user with the social networking system is less than a threshold value.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 13/440,921, filed Apr. 5, 2012, which is incorporated by referencein its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to social networking and, in particular,systems and methods for optimizing engagement with a social networkingsystem.

BACKGROUND

Social networking websites provide a dynamic environment in whichmembers can connect to and communicate with other members. Thesewebsites commonly may provide online mechanisms allowing members tointeract within their preexisting social networks as well as create newsocial networks. Members may include any individual or other entity,such as an organization or business. Among other attributes, socialnetworking websites allow members to effectively and efficientlycommunicate relevant information to their social networks.

A member of a social network may highlight or share personalinformation, news stories, relationship activities, music, and any othercontent of interest to areas of the website dedicated to the member.Other members of the social network may access the shared content bybrowsing member profiles or performing dedicated searches. Upon accessand consideration of the content, the other members may react by takingone or more responsive actions, such as providing an opinion about thecontent. The ability of members to interact in this manner fosterscommunications among them and helps to realize the goals of socialnetworking websites.

However, members of a social networking website are not always engagedwith the website. Some members may visit the website intermittently.Other members may visit the website only in rare instances. Theirabsence from the website generally detracts from their social network bydiminishing the level and quality of communications among its members.

SUMMARY

To increase user engagement with a social networking system, embodimentsof the invention provide communications to be sent to a user regardingactivities that concern the social network of the user. In an embodimentof the invention, digest communications are periodically provided forthe user. Measures of relatedness between the user and personsassociated with activities in a social network are determined. Personshaving highest measures of relatedness with the user are identified.Their activities are prioritized based on relevance to the user.References associated with at least a portion of the prioritizedactivities are created. The references are categorized into a pluralityof types. The reference types may include, but are not limited to,pending notifications, friend identifications, and top stories. Thereferences are embedded in digest communications for the user. Theplurality of reference types are separately located in the digestcommunications. Descriptive information about the activities may beomitted from the digest communications to encourage the user to directlyengage with the social networking system. Digest communications for theuser are provided during a time period when the user is not engaged withthe social networking system. Provision of the digest communications forthe user may be timed at a first predetermined frequency. After the timeperiod, provision of the digest communications for the user may be timedat a second predetermined frequency different from the firstpredetermined frequency.

In an embodiment of the invention, the provision of notifications forthe user is ceased when the level of engagement of the user issufficiently large. An engagement level of the user is defined based onengagement with the social networking system in a predetermined intervalof time. The engagement level of the user with the social networkingsystem is determined. A threshold value is set based at least in part onempirical data. The engagement level of the user is compared with thethreshold value. It is determined whether the engagement level of theuser is greater than or equal to the threshold value. If the answer is“Yes”, provision of the notifications for the user is ceased. If theanswer is “No”, the notifications are provided for the user.

In an embodiment of the invention, the provision of digestcommunications and notifications may be managed in whole or part by thesocial networking system and the user.

Many other features and embodiments of the invention will be apparentfrom the accompanying drawings and from the following detaileddescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a system for optimizing engagement with asocial networking system in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an engagement module of the socialnetworking system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a notification setting page with example types ofnotifications that may be provided by the social networking system inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a digest communication in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates creation of a digest communication in accordance withan alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 6A-6B show messages provided by the social networking systemregarding user management of notifications in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 shows a notification setting page to allow resumption ofnotifications in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a process for managing digest communications in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a process for managing notifications in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a computer system in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only, wherein the figures use like referencenumerals to identify like elements. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Social Networking System Architecture

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a system 100 for increasing engagement ofusers with a social networking system 130 in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. The system 100 includes one or more userdevices 110, one or more external systems 120, the social networkingsystem 130, and a network 140. For purposes of illustration, theembodiment of the system 100 shown by FIG. 1 includes a single externalsystem 120 and a single user device 110. However, in other embodiments,the system 100 may include more user devices 110 and/or more externalsystems 120. In certain embodiments, the social networking system 130 isoperated by a social network provider, whereas the external systems 120are separate from the social networking system 130 in that they may beoperated by different entities. In various embodiments, however, thesocial networking system 130 and the external systems 120 operate inconjunction to provide social networking services to users (or members)of the social networking system 130. In this sense, the socialnetworking system 130 provides a platform, or backbone, which othersystems, such as external systems 120, may use to provide socialnetworking services and functionalities to users across the Internet.

The user device 110 comprises one or more computing devices that canreceive input from a user and can transmit and receive data via thenetwork 140. In one embodiment, the user device 110 is a conventionalcomputer system executing, for example, a Microsoft Windows compatibleoperating system (OS), Apple OS X, and/or a Linux distribution. Inanother embodiment, the user device 110 can be a device having computerfunctionality, such as a smart-phone, a tablet, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, etc. The user device 110 isconfigured to communicate via the network 140. The user device 110 canexecute an application, for example, a browser application that allows auser of the user device 110 to interact with the social networkingsystem 130. In another embodiment, the user device 110 interacts withthe social networking system 130 through an application programminginterface (API) that runs on the native operating system of the userdevice 110, such as iOS 4 and ANDROID. The user device 110 is configuredto communicate with the external system 120 and the social networkingsystem 130 via the network 140, which may comprise any combination oflocal area and/or wide area networks, using wired and/or wirelesscommunication systems.

In one embodiment, the network 140 uses standard communicationstechnologies and/or protocols. Thus, the network 140 can include linksusing technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperabilityfor microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, CDMA, GSM, LTE, digital subscriberline (DSL), etc. Similarly, the networking protocols used on the network140 can include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmissioncontrol protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol(UDP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transferprotocol (SMTP), and file transfer protocol (FTP). The data exchangedover the network 140 can be represented using technologies and/orformats including hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markuplanguage (XML). In addition, all or some links can be encrypted usingconventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer (SSL),transport layer security (TLS), and Internet Protocol security (IPsec).

In one embodiment, the user device 110 may display content from theexternal system 120 and/or from the social networking system 130 byprocessing a markup language document 114 received from the externalsystem 120 and from the social networking system 130 using a browserapplication 112. The markup language document 114 identifies content andone or more instructions describing formatting or presentation of thecontent. By executing the instructions included in the markup languagedocument 114, the browser application 112 displays the identifiedcontent using the format or presentation described by the markuplanguage document 114. For example, the markup language document 114includes instructions for generating and displaying a web page havingmultiple frames that include text and/or image data retrieved from theexternal system 120 and the social networking system 130. In variousembodiments, the markup language document 114 comprises a data fileincluding extensible markup language (XML) data, extensible hypertextmarkup language (XHTML) data, or other markup language data.Additionally, a markup language document 114 may include JavaScriptObject Notation (JSON) data, JSON with padding (JSONP), and JavaScriptdata to facilitate lightweight data-interchange between the externalsystem 120 and the user device 110. The browser application 112 on theuser device 110 may use a JavaScript compiler to decode such a markuplanguage document 114.

In one embodiment, the user device 110 also includes a cookie 116including data indicating whether a user of the user device 110 islogged into the social networking system 130. The cookie 116 indicateswhether the user of the user device 110 is involved in an active sessionwhere the user device 110 exchanges data with the social networkingsystem 130, allowing modification of the data communicated from thesocial networking system 130 to the user device 110.

The external system 120 includes one or more web servers including oneor more web pages 122 a, 122 b, which are communicated to the userdevice 110 using the network 140. The external system 120 is separatefrom the social networking system 130. For example, the external system120 is associated with a first domain while the social networking system130 is associated with a separate social networking domain. Web pages122 a, 122 b included in the external system 120 comprise markuplanguage documents identifying content and including instructionsspecifying formatting or presentation of the identified content.

The social networking system 130 comprises one or more computing devicesstoring a social network, or a “social graph”, including a plurality ofusers and providing users of the social network with the ability tocommunicate and interact with other users of the social network. Usersmay join the social networking system 130 and then add connections toany number of other users of the social networking system 130 to whomthey desire to be connected. As used herein, the term “friend” refers toany other user of the social networking system 130 to whom a user hasformed a connection, association, or relationship via the socialnetworking system 130.

Connections may be added explicitly by a user or may be automaticallycreated by the social networking systems 130 based on commoncharacteristics of the users (e.g., users who are alumni of the sameeducational institution). For example, a first user specifically selectsa particular other user to be a friend. Connections in the socialnetworking system 130 are usually in both directions, but need not be,so the terms “user” and “friend” depend on the frame of reference.Connections between users of the social networking system 130 areusually bilateral (“two-way”), or “mutual,” but connections may also beunilateral, or “one-way.” For example, if Bob and Joe are both users ofthe social networking system 130 and connected to each other, Bob andJoe are each other's connections. If, on the other hand, Bob wishes toconnect to Joe to view data communicated to the social networking system130 by Joe, but Joe does not wish to form a mutual connection, aunilateral connection may be established. The connection between usersmay be a direct connection; however, some embodiments of a socialnetworking system 130 allow the connection to be indirect via one ormore levels of connections or degrees of separation.

In addition to establishing and maintaining connections between usersand allowing interactions between users, the social networking system130 provides users with the ability to take actions on various types ofitems supported by the social networking system 130. These items mayinclude groups or networks (where “networks” here refer not to physicalcommunication networks, but rather social networks of people, entities,and concepts) to which users of the social networking system 130 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use via the socialnetworking system 130, transactions that allow users to buy or sellitems via the service, and interactions with advertisements that a usermay perform on or off the social networking system 130. These are just afew examples of the items upon which a user may act on a socialnetworking system 130, and many others are possible. A user may interactwith anything that is capable of being represented in the socialnetworking system 130 or in the external system 120, separate from thesocial networking system 130, coupled to the social networking system130 via the network 140.

The social networking system 130 is also capable of linking a variety ofentities. For example, the social networking system 130 enables users tointeract with each other as well as external systems 120 or otherentities through an API or other communication channels. The socialnetworking system 130 generates and maintains the “social graph”comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of edges.Each node in the social graph may represent an entity that can act onanother node and/or that can be acted on by another node. The socialgraph may include various types of nodes. Examples of types of nodesinclude users, non-person entities, content items, web pages, groups,activities, messages, concepts, and any other things that can berepresented by an object in the social networking system 130. An edgebetween two nodes in the social graph represents a particular kind ofconnection, or association, between the two nodes, which may result fromnode relationships or from an action that was performed by one of thenodes on the other node. For example, when a first user identifies asecond user as a friend, an edge in the social graph is generatedconnecting a node representing the first user and a second noderepresenting the second user. As various nodes relate or interact witheach other, the social networking system 130 modifies edges connectingthe various nodes to reflect the relationships and interactions.

The social networking system 130 also includes user-generated content,which enhances a user's interactions with the social networking system130. User-generated content may include anything a user can add, upload,send, or “post” to the social networking system 130. For example, a usercommunicates posts to the social networking system 130 from a userdevice 110. Posts may include data such as status updates or othertextual data, location information, images such as photos, videos,links, music or other similar data and/or media. Content may also beadded to the social networking system 130 by a third-party through a“communication channel”, such as a newsfeed or stream. Content “items”represent single pieces of content that are represented as objects inthe social networking system 130. In this way, users of the socialnetworking system 130 are encouraged to communicate with each other byposting text and content items of various types of media through variouscommunication channels. Such communication increases the interaction ofusers with each other and increases the frequency with which usersinteract with the social networking system 130.

The social networking system 130 includes a web server 132, an APIrequest server 134, a user profile store 136, a connection store 138, anaction logger 146, an activity log 142, an authorization server 144, andan engagement module 150. In an embodiment of the invention, the socialnetworking system 130 may include additional, fewer, or differentcomponents for various applications. Other components, such as networkinterfaces, security mechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management and network operations consoles, and the like are not shownso as to not obscure the details of the system.

The user profile store 136 maintains user profiles, includingbiographic, demographic, and other types of descriptive information,such as work experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences,location, and the like that has been declared by users or inferred bythe social networking system 130. This information is stored in the userprofile store 136 such that each user is uniquely identified. The socialnetworking system 130 also stores data describing one or moreconnections between different users in the connection store 138. Theconnection information may indicate users who have similar or commonwork experience, group memberships, hobbies, or educational history.Additionally, the social networking system 130 includes user-definedconnections between different users, allowing users to specify theirrelationships with other users. For example, user-defined connectionsallow users to generate relationships with other users that parallel theusers' real-life relationships, such as friends, co-workers, partners,and so forth. Users may select from predefined types of connections, ordefine their own connection types as needed. Connections with othernodes in the social networking system 130, such as non-person entities,buckets, cluster centers, images, interests, pages, external systems,concepts, and the like are also stored in the connection store 138.

The social networking system 130 maintains data about objects with whicha user may interact. To maintain this data, the user profile store 136and the connection store 138 store instances of the corresponding typeof objects maintained by the social networking system 130. Each objecttype has information fields that are suitable for storing informationappropriate to the type of object. For example, the user profile store136 contains data structures with fields suitable for describing auser's profile. When a new object of a particular type is created, thesocial networking system 130 initializes a new data structure of thecorresponding type, assigns a unique object identifier to it, and beginsto add data to the object as needed. This might occur, for example, whena user becomes a user of the social networking system 130, and thesocial networking system 130 generates a new instance of a user profilein the user profile store 136, assigns a unique identifier to the userprofile, and begins to populate the fields of the user profile withinformation provided by the user.

The connection store 138 includes data structures suitable fordescribing a user's connections to other users, connections to externalsystems 120 or connections to other entities. The connection store 138may also associate a connection type with a user's connections, whichmay be used in conjunction with the user's privacy setting to regulateaccess to information about the user. In an embodiment of the invention,the user profile store 136 and the connection store 138 may beimplemented as a federated database.

Data stored in the connection store 138, the user profile store 136 andthe activity log 142 enables the social networking system 130 togenerate the social graph that uses nodes to identify various objectsand edges connecting nodes to identify relationships between differentobjects. For example, if a first user establishes a connection with asecond user in the social networking system 130, user profiles of thefirst user and the second user from the user profile store 136 may actas nodes in the social graph. The connection between the first user andthe second user stored by the connection store 138 is an edge betweenthe nodes associated with the first user and the second user. Continuingthis example, the second user may then send the first user a messagewithin the social networking system 130. The action of sending themessage, which may be stored, is another edge between the two nodes inthe social graph representing the first user and the second user.Additionally, the message itself may be identified and included in thesocial graph as another node connected to the nodes representing thefirst user and the second user.

In another example, a first user may tag a second user in an image thatis maintained by the social networking system 130 (or, alternatively, inan image maintained by another system outside of the social networkingsystem 130). The image may itself be represented as a node in the socialnetworking system 130. This tagging action may create edges between thefirst user and the second user as well as create an edge between each ofthe users and the image, which is also a node in the social graph. Inyet another example, if a user confirms attending an event, the user andthe event are nodes obtained from the user profile store 136, where theattendance of the event is an edge between the nodes that may beretrieved from the activity log 142. By generating and maintaining thesocial graph, the social networking system 130 includes data describingmany different types of objects and the interactions and connectionsamong those objects, providing a rich source of socially relevantinformation.

The web server 132 links the social networking system 130 to one or moreuser devices 110 and/or one or more external systems 120 via the network140. The web server 132 serves web pages, as well as other web-relatedcontent, such as Java, Flash, XML, and so forth. The web server 132 mayinclude a mail server or other messaging functionality for receiving androuting messages between the social networking system 130 and one ormore user devices 110. The messages can be instant messages, queuedmessages (e.g., email), text and SMS messages, or any other suitablemessaging format.

The API request server 134 allows one or more external systems 120 anduser devices 110 to access information from the social networking system130 by calling one or more APIs. The API request server 134 may alsoallow external systems 120 to send information to the social networkingsystem 130 by calling APIs. The external system 120, in one embodiment,sends an API request to the social networking system 130 via the network140, and the API request server 134 receives the API request. The APIrequest server 134 processes the request by calling an API associatedwith the API request to generate an appropriate response, which the APIrequest server 134 communicates to the external system 120 via thenetwork 140. For example, responsive to an API request, the API requestserver 134 collects data associated with a user, such as the user'sconnections that have logged into the external system 120, andcommunicates the collected data to the external system 120. In anotherembodiment, the user device 110 communicates with the social networkingsystem 130 via APIs in the same manner as external systems 120.

The action logger 146 is capable of receiving communications from theweb server 132 about user actions on and/or off the social networkingsystem 130. The action logger 146 populates the activity log 142 withinformation about user actions, enabling the social networking system130 to discover various actions taken by its users within the socialnetworking system 130 and outside of the social networking system 130.Any action that a particular user takes with respect to another node onthe social networking system 130 is associated with each user's profile,through information maintained in the activity log 142 or in a similardatabase or other data repository. Examples of actions taken by a userwithin the social networking system 130 that are identified and storedmay include, for example, adding a connection to another user, sending amessage to another user, reading a message from another user, viewingcontent associated with another user, attending an event posted byanother user, posting an image, attempting to post an image, or otheractions interacting with another user or another object. When a usertakes an action within the social networking system 130, the action isrecorded in the activity log 142. In one embodiment, the socialnetworking system 130 maintains the activity log 142 as a database ofentries. When an action is taken within the social networking system130, an entry for the action is added to the activity log 142. Theactivity log 142 may be referred to as an action log.

Additionally, user actions may be associated with concepts and actionsthat occur within an entity outside of the social networking system 130,such as an external system 120 that is separate from the socialnetworking system 130. For example, the action logger 146 may receivedata describing a user's interaction with an external system 120 fromthe web server 132. In this example, the external system 120 reports auser's interaction according to structured actions and objects in thesocial graph. Other examples of actions where a user interacts with anexternal system 120 include a user expressing an interest in an externalsystem 120 or another entity, a user posting a comment to the socialnetworking system 130 that discusses an external system 120 or a webpage 122 a within the external system 120, a user posting to the socialnetworking system 130 a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or otheridentifier associated with an external system 120, a user attending anevent associated with an external system 120, or any other action by auser that is related to an external system 120. Thus, the activity log142 may include actions describing interactions between a user of thesocial networking system 130 and an external system 120 that is separatefrom the social networking system 130.

The authorization server 144 enforces one or more privacy settings ofthe users of the social networking system 130. A privacy setting of auser determines how particular information associated with a user can beshared. The privacy setting comprises the specification of particularinformation associated with a user and the specification of the entityor entities with whom the information can be shared. Examples ofentities with which information can be shared may include other users,applications, external systems 120, or any entity that can potentiallyaccess the information. The information that can be shared by a usercomprises user profile information like profile photo, phone numbersassociated with the user, user's connections, actions taken by the usersuch as adding a connection, changing user profile information, and thelike.

The privacy setting specification may be provided at different levels ofgranularity. For example, the privacy setting may identify specificinformation to be shared with other users. For example, the privacysetting identifies a work phone number or a specific set of relatedinformation, such as, personal information including profile photo, homephone number, and status. Alternatively, the privacy setting may applyto all the information associated with the user. The specification ofthe set of entities that can access particular information can also bespecified at various levels of granularity. Various sets of entitieswith which information can be shared may include, for example, allfriends of the user, all friends of friends, all applications, or allexternal systems 120. One embodiment allows the specification of the setof entities to comprise an enumeration of entities. For example, theuser may provide a list of external systems 120 that are allowed toaccess certain information. Another embodiment allows the specificationto comprise a set of entities along with exceptions that are not allowedto access the information. For example, a user may allow all externalsystems 120 to access the user's work information but specify a list ofexternal systems 120 that are not allowed to access the workinformation. Certain embodiments call the list of exceptions that arenot allowed to access certain information a “block list”. Externalsystems 120 belonging to a block list specified by a user are blockedfrom accessing the information specified in the privacy setting. Variouscombinations of granularity of specification of information andgranularity of specification of entities with which information isshared are possible. For example, all personal information may be sharedwith friends whereas all work information may be shared with friends offriends.

The authorization server 144 contains logic to determine if certaininformation associated with a user can be accessed by a user's friends,external systems 120 and/or other applications and entities. Theexternal system 120 may need authorization from the authorization server144 to access the user's more private and sensitive information, such asthe user's work phone number. Based on the user's privacy settings, theauthorization server 144 determines if another user, the external system120, an application, or another entity is allowed to access informationassociated with the user, including information about actions taken bythe user.

User Engagement Management

The social networking system 130 includes the engagement module 150 toincrease the level of engagement of users with the social networkingsystem 130. The level of interaction among users and related engagementwith the social networking system 130 may vary. While some users mayoften engage with the social networking system 130, other users may lessfrequently so engage. Users may have limited engagement with the socialnetworking system 130 for a variety of reasons. For example, they maychoose to spend much of their social time in offline activities. Asanother example, even when online, they may choose to frequent otherwebsites. Low levels of engagement impede communications among membersof a social network and detract from the overall user experience of thesocial networking system 130. In contrast, a high level of engagementfor all users fosters communication among users, and helps to realizethe potential of the social networking system 130.

The engagement module 150 manages communications to users to increasetheir level of engagement with the social networking system 130. Theengagement module 150 may control the type, content, and frequency ofcommunications provided to users regarding activities that havetranspired in their social networks. Such control encourages usershaving a low level of engagement with the social networking system 130to increase their activities, as discussed in more detail below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the engagement module 150 of FIG. 1 inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. The engagement module150 includes an email engine 210, a message transfer agent (MTA) 212, amultifeed module 214, a coefficient module 216, a notification log 218,an email log 220, and a login log 222. In an embodiment of theinvention, the functions performed by the components (e.g., logs,engines, modules, etc.) shown in FIG. 2 may be variously replaced by,combined with, or integrated into other components.

Provision of communications for a user of the social networking system130 may be managed and implemented by the engagement module 150 or othersuitable functionality of the social networking system 130. The emailengine 210 may control the direct or indirect provision ofcommunications through the message transfer agent (MTA) 212 to the user.For example, the message transfer agent (MTA) 212 may providecommunications for or to a user who receives such messages through emailor other message systems external to the social networking system 130,such as the external system 120.

The notification log 218 maintains information about notificationsprovided by the social networking system 130 for the user.Communications provided by the social networking system 130 for the usermay include notifications about activities that have taken place within,or even outside, the social network of the user. A vast array ofnotifications may be provided to the user as email, text, RSS, or anyother suitable type of communication vehicle. FIG. 3 is a notificationsetting page 310 that shows example types of notifications that may beprovided by the social networking system 130 for a user regardingactivities that have occurred in or outside her social network. Recentnotifications 312 list the notifications that have been provided to theuser in the recent past. As shown, the recent notifications 312 mayinclude, for example, invitations provided to a user to “like” thewebpage of a friend within the social network of the user of the socialnetworking system 130. As another example, the recent notifications 312may include notice that a friend within the social network of the userhas commented about content that has been posted to an area within thesocial networking system 130 dedicated to the friend (e.g., “wall”). Asyet another example, the recent notifications 312 may include anindication that a friend of the user “likes” content posted by the userto a wall. The recent notifications 312 may include other types ofnotifications as well.

Notification listing 314 enumerates example categories of notificationsthat may be provided for the user. Notification categories may include,for example, a social networking website, photos, groups, pages, events,questions, notes, links, video, help center, wall comments, places,deals, other updates, credits, and other applications. Each category mayprovide for notifications that are sent to the user when an eventrelating to the particular category occurs. For example, notificationsconcerning the social networking website category may be provided to theuser when, for example, a friend of the user sends a message to theuser, a person adds the user as a friend within a social network, aperson confirms a request by the user to become friends, a friend of theuser posts to the wall of the user, a person “pokes” the user, birthdaysof friends of the user are imminent, another person requests that theuser be identified as family member, another “likes” the post of theuser (not shown), etc. As another example, notifications concerning thephotos category may be provided for the user when, for example, the useris “tagged” in a photo, a person comments on a photo in which the userappears, the user uploads a photo to the social networking website, etc(not shown). Like notifications concerning the social networking websitecategory and the photos category, notifications for other categories ofthe notification listing 314 may also be provided to the user upon theoccurrence of certain activities related to the category. In anembodiment of the invention, other notifications and categories ofnotifications not shown in FIG. 3 may be included in the notificationlisting 314.

The notification setting page 310 may provide user-defined settings tocontrol real-time, near real time, or intermittent provision ofnotifications upon the occurrence of the associated activity. Forexample, when a user has chosen to receive notifications when a friendof the user “likes” a post of the user, a notification may be sent inthe form of an email as soon as the social networking system 130determines that the event has occurred. In an embodiment of theinvention, notifications may be accumulated and intermittently sent inbatches at predetermined frequencies. For example, when a user haschosen to receive notifications about upcoming birthdays of friends,notifications about one or many birthdays of friends may be sent at aspecific time interval (e.g., weekly), as shown in FIG. 3. In anembodiment of the invention, the timing and frequency of notificationsmay be determined by the user, the social networking system 130, or acombination thereof. In an embodiment of the invention, the notificationsettings selected by the user may be maintained in the user profilestore 136.

In a “customize mode” for notifications, the notification setting page310 may allow the user to select which of the possible notifications maybe provided for the user. For example, the user may choose to receive anotification when someone in the social network sends a message to theuser but may choose not to receive a notification when another in thesocial network adds the user as a friend. As another example, the usermay choose to receive a notification when another person confirms theuser as a friend to be added to her social network but may choose not toreceive a notification when another person posts a message on the wallof the user. The customize mode allows the user to implementpersonalized notification preferences based on the importance of orinterest level in the notifications, as determined by the user. In thecustomize mode, the notification settings may be set and changedentirely or partially by the user.

In a “minimal email” mode for notifications, all or a significantportion of the possible notifications are not provided to the user whenthe activities that would otherwise trigger the notifications occur. Inthe minimal email mode, the notification listing 314 may display alisting of notifications that are disabled (not shown in FIG. 3) and notselectable by the user. Disabling notifications prevents the user fromselectively choosing which notifications to receive or not to receive,as is possible in the customize mode. The minimal email mode may beimplemented to stop, prevent, or decrease the notifications provided bythe social networking system 130 to the user about activities concerningher social network.

In an embodiment of the invention, control over notifications to beprovided to the user may be exercised by the user, the social networkingsystem 130, or a combination thereof. Likewise, selection of thecustomize mode or the minimal email mode may be made by the user, thesocial networking system 130, or a combination thereof.

The notification log 218 may include transactional information such asthe category and type of notifications sent to the user, as well as theactivities that prompt provision of the notifications. The notificationlog 218 also may include information regarding the date and time thenotifications are provided to the user. In an embodiment of theinvention, the notification log 218 may be implemented as a databasetable.

The multifeed module 214 may manage and track information aboutactivities of connections of the user. For example, the multifeed module214 may provide information about status information posted by friends.Status information may include temporary information published by afriend of the user that reflects the current thoughts and expressions ofthe friend. By its nature, posted status information may changefrequently. The multifeed module 214 may track such changes. As anotherexample, the multifeed module 214 may also track information aboutphotos, videos, and other content posted by friends of the user.

The multifeed module 214 may also track stories concerning friends ofthe user. Stories may include various actions taken by the friends inthe social networking system 130. For example, a story may involve oneor more friends “liking” the photo of another friend. As anotherexample, a story may involve one or more friends “liking” the status ofanother friend. As yet another example, a story may involve thepublication of a comment or sharing by a friend or friends of the user.In addition to the information described herein, other types ofinformation about the social network of the user also may be tracked bythe multifeed module 214.

The login log 222 maintains information regarding the history ofengagement by a user with the social networking system 130. Theengagement information maintained by the login log 222 may includeinformation regarding the date and times of prior visits by the user tothe social networking system 130, including the date and time of thelast visit by the user to the social networking system 130. In anembodiment of the invention, the login log 222 may maintain other typesof engagement information, such as the history of logins to the socialnetworking system 130 by the user or the history of certain actionstaken by the user when engaged with the social networking system 130.

The email log 220 maintains information about emails provided to a user.The information maintained by the email log 220 may includetransactional information about emails provided by the social networkingsystem 130 through the message transmitter agent (MTA) 212 to anexternal message system used by the user. In particular, the email log220 may contain information about the date and time of all emailsprovided to the user as well as other types of information. In anembodiment of the invention, the email log 220 may maintaintransactional information about other communications provided to theuser in addition to email.

The coefficient module 216 may provide coefficients as measures ofrelatedness between nodes in the social graph of the social networkingsystem 130. For example, coefficients may indicate that a user is closerto her best friend than to another person befriended by the user.Coefficients may provide weights for edges between nodes in the socialgraph. For example, a greater weight may be given for a certain onlinegame if the user plays the online game more often than another onlinegame, or to a particular friend of the user if that friend frequentlycomments on the status of the user or of another friend of the user. Thecoefficient module 216 may store raw features about interactions betweennodes, and has trained algorithms based thereon to provide generalpurpose functions to provide rankings, intelligence, suggestions, andrecommendations.

Since there may be multiple paths between any two nodes, the measure ofrelatedness may also be based how many paths connect two nodes in thesocial graph. For example, if a User A makes two comments on an articleposted by a User B, there may be two paths between User A and the postedarticle, one for each comment made by User A. Using the same example, ifUser A and User B are friends, there may be an additional path thatindirectly connects User A to the article through User B, who posted thearticle. In some cases, as the number of paths between two nodesincreases, the measure of relatedness between those nodes may alsoincrease.

The coefficient module 216 may be a function, service, program, library,script, or other type of compiled or interpreted executable softwaremodule. It may be called by other services and applications for customfunctions using the interactions. For example, the coefficient module216 may be used to select stories or other types of content posted fromthe closest friends of a user, to sort bookmarks to online games thatthe user most often plays, and to sort a list of friends based on whomthe user may most frequently communicate using instant message or chatservices. The services and applications that employ, use, or callcoefficients may be part of or external to the social networking system130, including mobile applications and non-mobile applications.

The measure of relatedness may be based on a variety of possibleinteractions between nodes, whether internal or external to the socialnetworking system 130. Nodes may include users, people, pages, or anyobject in the social graph. The determination of relatedness may bedirectional or directionless, and may depend on the interaction,closeness, weight between nodes, or on other relationships between nodesand edges in the social graph. As an example, the relatedness from oneuser (e.g., User A) to another user (e.g., User B) may be based onvarious interactions between the users including but are not limited towhether: User A commented on a photo of User B; User A liked content ora status update of User B; User A posted on the wall of User B; User Awas on the same thread as User B; User A appears in the same photo asUser B; a certain amount of time (e.g., days) transpires with (orwithout) User A engaging with User B or content of User B; User A linkedto a comment of User B; User A shared content of User B with others;User A mentioned User B in a wall comment; User A viewed profile orother web page of User B; etc.

The foregoing interactions are merely examples and other interactionsmay be considered in the determination of coefficients between twonodes. In the foregoing example concerning the determination of User A′scoefficient for User B, many of the possible interactions informing thecoefficient are based on actions of User A. However, other interactionsinvolving actions of User B may also be considered in the determinationof User A′s coefficient for User B. Such interactions may include butare not limited to whether: User B viewed a photo of User A; User Bviewed an album of User A; a certain amount of time (e.g., days)transpires with (or without) User B engaging with User A or content ofUser A; etc. Further, the interactions that inform the determination ofrelatedness by the coefficients module may be based on varioushistorical time durations. The determination of relatedness may also bebased on a frequency of interaction within those historical timedurations. For example, determinations of relatedness may be based onhow many times or how frequently interactions occurred within the last30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etc.

Various services may call the coefficient module 216 to use coefficientsin their computations. For example, a Top Friends service may use thecoefficients to determine which friends are most closely related to auser within the social graph. In other words, “top friends” may refer toa prioritized identification of connections of the user with whom sheenjoys the highest measures of relatedness. The determination of topfriends may be used by the social networking system 130 in a variety ofcontexts, such as: to identify participants to play online games; toidentify relevant connections to the user for inclusion in her socialnetwork; to display a listing of photos of persons having highestrelevance to the user; to otherwise display or list an identification ofpersons having highest relevance to the user; to identify persons withwhom the user can engage in an instant message or chat session; etc.Other examples of services that may use coefficients include but are notlimited to Top Users, Top Pages, Top Applications, Top Fans, etc.

The email engine 210, through a Top Friends or similar service, may callthe coefficient module 216 to identify the friends of the user with highmeasures of relatedness. The measures of relatedness provided by thecoefficient module 216 and relevant services may allow for theidentification of top friends of the user. The identification of topfriends, in turn, may allow information about activities regarding suchfriends to be prioritized over activities relating to others. Onceprioritized, the information about activities may be selected forinclusion in communications for the user provided by the email engine210. Such information may relate to, for example, photos and storiesposted by the top friends of the user.

In an embodiment of the invention, to identify the friends having thehighest measures of relatedness with the user, the friends may be rankedbased on their respective coefficients with the user. Then, apredetermined number of friends may be selected from the top of theranking. Once friends with the highest measures of relatedness areidentified, the activities associated with them may be prioritized overthe activities of others. The email engine 210 then may createreferences associated with the prioritized activities and embed thereferences in digest communications. The references may be classifiedinto different types of information and presented separately in thedigest communication according to their types.

The email engine 210 periodically may provide digest communications forthe user. The digest communications may include references to activitiesin the social network of the user that have been prioritized based ontheir relevance to the user and then selected. In an embodiment of theinvention, the digest communications may be email. In addition to email,the digest communications may be provided to the user as text, RSS, orany other suitable type of communication vehicle.

The digest communications may be sent when the user has not engaged withthe social networking system 130 for a predetermined time period or timeperiods. The email engine 210 may compare information from the login log222 with the predetermined time periods to determine whether to providedigest communications for the user. In particular, the email engine 210may retrieve from the login log 222 the date and time of the lastengagement of the user with the social networking system 130. The lastuser engagement with the social networking system 130 may be based onone or many considerations. For example, the last user engagement may bethe most recent visit to the social networking system 130. In additionto the most recent visit to the social networking system 130, the lastuser engagement may be based on the most recent login to the socialnetworking system 130 by the user. If the time since the last engagementis more than a predetermined time period, the email engine 210 may causea digest communication to be provided to the user. In an embodiment ofthe invention, a predetermined time period may be two days or any othersuitable period of time.

After a first digest communication is provided for the user, the emailengine 210 may send additional digest communications at a firstpredetermined frequency corresponding to the end of every subsequentpredetermined time period. For every instance when the time since thelast engagement by the user with the social networking system 130exceeds the predetermined time period, an additional digestcommunication may be provided to the user. For example, if thepredetermined time period is two days, a user who has not visited thesocial networking system 130 for five days will receive two separatedigest communications. From the time of the last visit by the user tothe social networking system 130, one digest communication is providedafter the second day, and the other digest communication is providedafter the fourth day. A user that is engaged at a low level with thesocial networking system 130 thus may receive a series of digestcommunications at a first predetermined frequency during a period of noengagement with the social networking system 130.

In an embodiment of the invention, digest communications may be providedfor the user at different frequencies during a period of no engagementby a user. For example, digest communications may be regularly providedat a first predetermined frequency for a first time period. In thisexample, the first predetermined frequency may be every two days and thefirst time period may be 14 days. After the first time period, thedigest communications may be regularly provided at a second frequencyfor a second time period. In this example, the second frequency may beevery 14 days and the second predetermined time period may be the timeperiod after an initial 14 days after the most recent engagement by theuser with the social networking system 130. In a similar manner,additional digest communications may be provided at other predeterminedfrequencies corresponding to other time periods. The predeterminedfrequencies and time periods may vary and assume any values determinedby the social networking system 130 to be suitable.

The email engine 210 designs the digest communication to containreferences about activities most relevant to the user that have occurredwithin her social network. When designed to contain relevantinformation, the digest communication is more likely to cause the userto engage with the social networking system 130. The email engine 210identifies relevant information based on measures of relatednessprovided by the coefficient module 216. The references to be embedded inthe digest communication may come from many sources in the socialnetworking system 130 including, for example, the notification log 218and the multifeed module 214.

References may include pending notification counts as one type ofinformation to be embedded in digest communications. The email engine210 may consider counts of many pending notifications from thenotification log 218 for possible inclusion in the digest communication.In an embodiment of the invention, information about notifications thatis included in the digest communication may not be prioritized. Rather,the digest communication may include a count of total notifications thathave been provided to the user over a predetermined time period. Thecount of notifications may be expressed as one aggregate total ordivided into notification categories. Notification categories mayinclude, for example, the number of friend requests sent to the user byothers, the number of messages to which the user has not replied, thenumber of other notifications, and any count of notifications fallinginto other suitable notification categories. Notifications may be adistinct type of information about the social network of the user andpresented in a separate, dedicated section in the digest communication.

In an embodiment of the invention, based on the coefficient module 216,the email engine 210 may include in the count, for example, only thosenotifications related to friends of the user having the highest measuresof relatedness. To further focus on relevant information, the emailengine 210 may select only a limited number of notifications to includein the count.

A complete or partial description of the notification themselves may notbe included in the digest communication. For example, the identify offriends involved in the notifications and the message content associatedwith the notifications may be partially or wholly omitted from thedigest communication. Descriptive information about the notificationsmay be omitted from the digest communications to encourage the user todirectly engage with the social networking system 130.

References also may include friend identifications (i.e., “Facepile”) asanother type of information to be embedded in digest communications.Photos, statuses, and other possible content from the social network ofthe user may be provided from the multifeed module 214 to the emailengine 210. The friends of the user who posted content in a relevanttime period may be identified. Based on measures of relatedness providedby the coefficient module 216, the email engine 210 may identify the topfriends of the user. Then, references identifying the top friendsassociated with the posted content may be included in the digestcommunication. However, like notifications, the content itself may bepartially or wholly omitted from the digest communication to encouragethe user to engage with the social networking system 130. In anembodiment of the invention, the number of friends identified in thedigest communication may not exceed a predetermined limit, such as sevenor any other suitable number.

In an embodiment of the invention, the top friends who posted contentmay be identified in the digest communication using their profilephotos, their names, or any other kind of identifying information. Thedigest communication may further include a written indication that theseusers have posted photos, statuses, and other content. In an embodimentof the invention, the friend identification may be a distinct type ofinformation about the social network of the user and separatelypresented in the digest communication. The identification of the usersassociated with photos, statuses, and other posted content may belocated in a dedicated section of the digest communication that isseparate from the section including the count of notifications.

References also may include stories (i.e., “top stories”) as a type ofinformation to be embedded in digest communications. Various storiesfrom the social network of the user may be provided from the multifeedmodule 214 to the email engine 210. Based on measures of relatednessprovided by the coefficient module 216, the stories most relevant to theuser are identified by the email engine 210. In an embodiment of theinvention, the measure of relatedness between the user and a story maybe computed by identifying the actors involved in the story and summingtheir measures of relatedness with the user based on the coefficientmodule 216. Other techniques to determine appropriate stories forinclusion in the digest communication are possible. References about theidentified top stories are then included in the digest communication.Like the notifications and the friend identifications, a complete orpartial description of top stories may be omitted from the digestcommunication to encourage the user to engage with the social networkingsystem 130. In an embodiment of the invention, the number of top storiesincluded in the digest communication may be limited.

In an embodiment of the invention, the top stories may be located in asection of the digest communication that is separate from the sectionincluding friend identifications and the section including the count ofpending notifications. Further, a digest communication may not includeone or more of the sections corresponding to the count of pendingnotifications, the friend identifications, and the top stories. Forexample, if there has been no activity giving rise to a possiblenotification, friend identification, or top story since the last timethe user engaged with the social networking system 130, then no accountof that activity need appear in the digest communication.

FIG. 4 shows an example digest communication 410 in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. The digest communication 410 is providedfor a user and includes a pending notification section 412, a friendidentification section 414, and a top stories section 416. Thenotification section 412 includes a count of notifications in thecategories of friend requests, messages, and notifications. The friendidentification section 414 indicates that top friends have postedcontent in the social network of the user. The friend identificationsection 414 includes photos of the top friends and identifies some ofthem by name. The top stories section 416 includes two stories regardingfriends of the user. The design and appearance of digest communicationsmay vary from the example in FIG. 4.

The digest communication 410 is intended to encourage the user to engagedirectly with the social networking system 130. The digest communication410 thus includes a button 418 to link to the social networking system130. A button 420 allows the user to see a listing of all notifications.If the notifications provided to the user are currently turned off, thena link 422 allows the user to turn the notifications back on. A link 424allows the user to unsubscribe from future provisions of digestcommunications. The button and links described herein, when selected bythe user, are user selections provided to the social networking system130.

In an embodiment of the invention, other types of information may beembedded in digest communications. For example, in addition to orinstead of notification counts, friend identifications, and top stories,photos posted to the social networking system 130 by top friends of theuser may be included as references to be included in the digestcommunications. Persons having the highest measures of relatedness ofthe user may be identified as top friends of the user. Then, the imagesposted by the top friends may be embedded in the digest communicationsfor the user. The digest communication may include a message about thetop friends in addition to the images themselves. For example, themessage may be a statement identifying the images embedded in the digestcommunication as images posted by top friends of the user since the userlast engaged with the social networking system 130. The images maylocated in a portion of the digest communication that is separate fromthe other types of information included in the digest communication.

Apart from notifications, friend identifications, stories, and photos,any type of information that may be of potential interest to the usermay be referenced in digest communications to encourage the user toengage directly with the social networking system 130. In an embodimentof the invention, types of information to be embedded in digestcommunications may be provided or tracked by the multifeed module 214 ora different module of the social networking system 130. The types ofinformation may be referenced in dedicated or combined sections of thedigest communications.

FIG. 5 illustrates the creation of a digest communication for provisionto a user in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention.Sources 510 a-n represent repositories of information regardingdifferent types of activity that have occurred in the social networkingsystem 130. The information maintained in the sources 510 a-n mayoriginate in the social networking system 130 or external systems 120having information-sharing relationships with the social networkingsystem 130. The sources 510 a-n may provide large amounts of socialnetwork information having potential relevance to the user. In anembodiment, the sources 510 a-n may include the multifeed module 214 andthe notification log 218 of FIG. 2. The sources 510 a-n also may storeinformation apart from the information maintained or tracked by themultifeed module 214 and the notification log 218.

The information maintained in the sources 510 a-n is provided toprioritization and reference generation 512. Prioritization andreference generation 512 sorts the information and prioritizes it basedon relevance to the user. Prioritization may implement computationalalgorithms to quantitatively rank information by its relevance to theuser. For example, the prioritization and reference generation 512 mayimplement algorithms of the coefficient module 216 and related servicesto determine measures of relatedness between the user and others andselect activities associated with persons having the highest measures ofrelatedness.

Once information of threshold relevance is identified, theprioritization and reference generation 512 may create references forthe most relevant information. The references then may be provided foran inclusion in a digest communication 514. The digest communication 514includes reference sections 516 a-n. The reference sections 516 a-n maycorrespond to the different types of information provided by the sources510 a-n. In an embodiment of the invention, the number of referencesections 516 a-n presented in the digest communication may not be equalto the number of sources 510 a-n. In an embodiment of the invention, ifthe extent of references for a particular one of the reference sections516 a-n does not reach a threshold, the particular reference section maybe omitted from the digest communication 514.

The digest communication 514 may include some references associated withactivities that have occurred in the social network of the user. Thedigest communications may not include a complete description of theactivities, but rather may include only a partial description. Thedigest communications may omit some description about the activities toencourage the user to engage with the social networking system 130 andto access the entirety of the descriptions for the referencedactivities. In an embodiment of the invention, the reference sections516 a-n may present all or part of the information about activities thathas been determined by the prioritization and reference generation 512to be most relevant to the user.

As digest communications may be periodically provided to the user, theprovision of notifications by the social networking system 130 to theuser may be stopped in certain circumstances. When the level ofengagement of the user with the social networking system 130 within aprior predetermined interval of time is greater than or equal to athreshold value, notifications to the user are ceased to encourage theuser to increase her level of engagement with the social networkingsystem 130. When the level of engagement of the user with the socialnetworking system 130 within the prior predetermined interval of time isless than a threshold value, notifications are provided to the user toencourage the user to increase her level of engagement with the socialnetworking system 130. In an embodiment of the invention, the thresholdvalue may be determined by empirical data. Other techniques to determinethe threshold value are possible, and other suitable threshold valuesare possible.

For example, the email engine 210 or the social networking system 130may define a variable L28, which represents the number of times that auser has visited the social networking system 130 in the last 28 days.Further, the threshold value may be 15. Thus, if L28 is less than 15 fora user, then the social networking system 130 may provide notificationsfor the user when such provision is consistent with the policies of thesocial networking system 130 and the selection of the user. However, ifL28 is greater than or equal to 15, then the social networking system130 automatically may cease the provision of notifications for the user.

If the provision of notifications to the user is stopped, thenotifications may later resume. As time proceeds, the engagement module150 may continually monitor the predetermined prior interval of time tocompare the level of engagement of the user with the social networkingsystem 130 against the threshold value. For example, if the level ofengagement of the user with the social networking system 130 is greaterthan the threshold value during a first interval of time, notificationsfor the user may be turned off. During a second interval of timesubsequent to the first interval of time, the level of engagement maydecrease. If the decreased level of engagement falls below the thresholdvalue, then the engagement module 150 may resume provision ofnotifications for the user. In a similar manner for later timeintervals, the engagement module 150 may cease and resume the provisionof notifications based on comparison of the levels of engagement duringthe time intervals against a threshold value.

The level of engagement of a user with the social networking system 130may be based on one or many factors. In an embodiment of the invention,the level of engagement may be based on the number of visits to thesocial networking system 130. In another embodiment, the level ofengagement of a user may be based on additional or alternative factorsrelated to participation by the user in the social networking system130, such as the number of log ins by the user, degree of interactionwith other users, and the types of interaction with other users of thesocial networking system 130. The prior predetermined interval of timemay be a predetermined number of prior days, weeks, months, years, orany other time durations.

If the social networking system 130 decides to automatically ceaseprovision of notifications, or if the user selects to cease provision ofnotifications, all possible notifications may cease. In an embodiment ofthe invention, despite a decision to stop notifications, the provisionof some notifications nonetheless may be deemed mandatory based on theirdeemed importance to the guidelines of the social networking system 130or other considerations. Such notifications may continue to be providedfor the user upon occurrence of related activities. For example, if auser is identified in photo posted by another (i.e., tagged), anotification may be sent to the user even if the social networkingsystem 130 or the user has otherwise decided to stop notifications forthe user. As another example, if the location of a user is posted byanother, a corresponding notification may be sent to the user even ifother notifications have ceased. Other types of notifications also maynot be turned off.

When notifications are turned off by the social networking system 130,the user may be so informed. FIGS. 6A-6B show messages provided by thesocial networking system 130 for the user regarding the management ofnotifications. FIG. 6A shows an example message 610 to inform a userthat the provision of notifications to her has ceased. The message 610includes a link 612 to allow the user to choose to turn back onnotifications, such as email. When the link 612 is selected, an opt outpage may be presented to the user. FIG. 6B shows an example opt out page620. The opt out page requests confirmation from the user thatnotifications should resume. The opt out page 620 includes a button 622to allow the user to confirm resumption of notifications and a button624 to cancel resumption of notifications.

FIG. 7 shows a notification setting page allowing the user to resume theprovision of notifications. A notification setting page 710 is similarto the notification setting page 310 (shown in FIG. 3) and includesrecent notifications 712 and notification listing 714. The notificationsetting page 710 additionally includes a notification handling section720. The notification handling section 720 allows the user to togglebetween the provision of notifications and the cessation ofnotifications. The toggling may be performed by appropriate selection ofa check box 722. As shown, the check box 722 is checked to indicate thatall notifications to the user should cease. Accordingly, there are nonotifications as recent notifications 712 and the notification listing714 is disabled. To resume notifications, the check box 722 may be leftunchecked.

FIG. 8 shows an example process for managing digest communications inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. In block 810, measuresof relatedness between a user and persons associated with activities ina social network are determined. In block 812, persons having highestmeasures of relatedness with the user are identified. In block 814, theactivities are prioritized based on relatedness to the user. In block816, references associated with at least a portion of the prioritizedactivities are created. In block 818, the references are categorizedinto a plurality of types. In block 820, one of the plurality of typesis defined to include at least one from the group consisting ofnotifications, friend identifications, and top stories. In block 822,the references are embedded in digest communications for the user. Inblock 824, the plurality of types are separately located in the digestcommunications. In block 826, descriptive information about theactivities are omitted from the digest communications. In block 828, thedigest communications for the user are provided during a time periodwhen the user is not engaged with the social networking system. In block830, provision of the digest communications for the user is timed at afirst predetermined frequency. In block 832, provision of the digestcommunications for the user is timed at a second predetermined frequencyafter the time period, the second predetermined frequency not equal tothe first predetermined frequency.

FIG. 9 is an example of a process for managing notifications inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. In block 910, activitiesin a social network system are prioritized based on relatedness to auser. In block 912, references associated with at least a portion of theprioritized activities are created. In block 914, the references areembedded in digest communications for the user. In block 916,user-defined settings to control provision of notifications arereceived. In block 918, an engagement level of the user is defined basedon engagement with the social networking system in a predeterminedinterval of time. In block 920, the engagement level of the user withthe social networking system is determined. In block 922, a thresholdvalue is set based at least in part on empirical data. In block 924, theengagement level of the user is compared with the threshold value. Inblock 926, it is determined whether the engagement level of the user isgreater than or equal to the threshold value. If the answer is “Yes” forblock 926, provision of the notifications for the user is ceased inblock 928. If the answer is “No” for block 926, the notifications areprovided for the user in block 930. In an embodiment of the invention,the process 900 may proceed to block 910 after the block 928 and theblock 930.

In an embodiment of the invention, the process 800 and the process 900may be entirely or partially performed by the engagement module 150. Inan embodiment of the invention, the process 800 and the process 900 maybe performed at least in part by the social networking system 130.

CONCLUSION

The foregoing processes and features can be implemented by a widevariety of machine and computer system architectures and in a widevariety of network and computing environments. FIG. 10 illustrates anexample of a computer system 1000 that may be used to implement one ormore of the computing devices identified above. The computer system 1000includes sets of instructions for causing the computer system 1000 toperform the processes and features discussed herein. The computer system1000 may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In anetworked deployment, the computer system 1000 may operate in thecapacity of a server machine or a client machine in a client-servernetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. In an embodiment of the invention, thecomputer system 1000 may be the social networking system 130, the userdevice 110, and the external system 120, or a component thereof. In anembodiment of the invention, the computer system 1000 may be one serveramong many that constitutes all or part of the social networking system130.

The computer system 1000 includes a processor 1002, a cache memory 1004,and one or more executable modules and drivers, stored on acomputer-readable medium, directed to the processes and featuresdescribed herein. Additionally, the computer system 1000 includes a highperformance input/output (I/O) bus 1006 and a standard I/O bus 1008. Ahost bridge 1010 couples processor 1002 to high performance I/O bus1006, whereas I/O bus bridge 1012 couples the two buses 1006 and 1008 toeach other. A system memory 1014 and one or more network interfaces 1016couple to bus 1006. The computer system 1000 may further include videomemory and a display device coupled to the video memory (not shown).Mass storage 1018 and I/O ports 1020 couple to the bus 1008. Thecomputer system 1000 may optionally include a keyboard and pointingdevice, a display device, or other input/output devices (not shown)coupled to the bus 1008. Collectively, these elements are intended torepresent a broad category of computer hardware systems, including butnot limited to computer systems based on the x86-compatible processorsmanufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., and thex86-compatible processors manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD),Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., as well as any other suitable processor.

An operating system manages and controls the operation of the computersystem 1000, including the input and output of data to and from softwareapplications (not shown). The operating system provides an interfacebetween the software applications being executed on the system and thehardware components of the system. Any suitable operating system may beused, such as the LINUX Operating System, the Apple Macintosh OperatingSystem, available from Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., UNIXoperating systems, Microsoft® Windows® operating systems, BSD operatingsystems, and the like. Other implementations are possible.

The elements of the computer system 1000 are described in greater detailbelow. In particular, the network interface 1016 provides communicationbetween the computer system 1000 and any of a wide range of networks,such as an Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.3) network, a backplane, etc. Themass storage 1018 provides permanent storage for the data andprogramming instructions to perform the above-described processes andfeatures implemented by the respective computing systems identifiedabove, whereas the system memory 1014 (e.g., DRAM) provides temporarystorage for the data and programming instructions when executed by theprocessor 1002. The I/O ports 1020 may be one or more serial and/orparallel communication ports that provide communication betweenadditional peripheral devices, which may be coupled to the computersystem 1000.

The computer system 1000 may include a variety of system architectures,and various components of the computer system 1000 may be rearranged.For example, the cache 1004 may be on-chip with processor 1002.Alternatively, the cache 1004 and the processor 1002 may be packedtogether as a “processor module”, with processor 1002 being referred toas the “processor core”. Furthermore, certain embodiments of theinvention may neither require nor include all of the above components.For example, peripheral devices coupled to the standard I/O bus 1008 maycouple to the high performance I/O bus 1006. In addition, in someembodiments, only a single bus may exist, with the components of thecomputer system 1000 being coupled to the single bus. Furthermore, thecomputer system 1000 may include additional components, such asadditional processors, storage devices, or memories.

In general, the processes and features described herein may beimplemented as part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, object, module, or series of instructions referredto as “programs”. For example, one or more programs may be used toexecute specific processes described herein. The programs typicallycomprise one or more instructions in various memory and storage devicesin the computer system 1000 that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors, cause the computer system 1000 to perform operations toexecute the processes and features described herein. The processes andfeatures described herein may be implemented in software, firmware,hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit), or anycombination thereof.

In one implementation, the processes and features described herein areimplemented as a series of executable modules run by the computer system1000, individually or collectively in a distributed computingenvironment. The foregoing modules may be realized by hardware,executable modules stored on a computer-readable medium (ormachine-readable medium), or a combination of both. For example, themodules may comprise a plurality or series of instructions to beexecuted by a processor in a hardware system, such as the processor1002. Initially, the series of instructions may be stored on a storagedevice, such as the mass storage 1018. However, the series ofinstructions can be stored on any suitable computer readable storagemedium. Furthermore, the series of instructions need not be storedlocally, and could be received from a remote storage device, such as aserver on a network, via the network interface 1016. The instructionsare copied from the storage device, such as the mass storage 1018, intothe system memory 1 and then accessed and executed by processor 1002.

Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to,recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices;solid state memories; floppy and other removable disks; hard diskdrives; magnetic media; optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-OnlyMemory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs)); other similarnon-transitory (or transitory), tangible (or non-tangible) storagemedium; or any type of medium suitable for storing, encoding, orcarrying a series of instructions for execution by the computer system1000 to perform any one or more of the processes and features describedherein.

For purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the description. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thedisclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In someinstances, modules, structures, processes, features, and devices areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description.In other instances, functional block diagrams and flow diagrams areshown to represent data and logic flows. The components of blockdiagrams and flow diagrams (e.g., modules, blocks, structures, devices,features, etc.) may be variously combined, separated, removed,reordered, and replaced in a manner other than as expressly describedand depicted herein.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”,“other embodiments”, or the like means that a particular feature,design, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of, for example, the phrase “in one embodiment” or “in anembodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, whetheror not there is express reference to an “embodiment” or the like,various features are described, which may be variously combined andincluded in some embodiments but also variously omitted in otherembodiments. Similarly, various features are described that may bepreferences or requirements for some embodiments but not otherembodiments.

The language used herein has been principally selected for readabilityand instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected todelineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is thereforeintended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detaileddescription, but rather by any claims that issue on an application basedhereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodiments of the inventionis intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of theinvention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: providing one or morenotification settings to a user of a social networking system, thenotification settings specifying one or more types of activities of oneor more additional users of the social networking system; receiving aselection of one or more of the notification settings from the user;identifying a plurality of activities of the additional users of thesocial networking system that are specified by the selected notificationsettings; identifying one or more of the additional users who arerelated to the identified activities; determining a measure ofrelatedness between the user and each of the identified additionalusers; ranking the identified plurality of activities based at least inpart on the determined measure of relatedness for the identifiedadditional users associated with the identified plurality of activities;selecting a set of the identified activities based on the ranking;creating by a processor, a notification for each of the selectedactivities; generating a digest communication that comprises the creatednotifications; and sending, in a communication channel external to thesocial networking system, the digest communication for display to theuser.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a low engagementuser of a plurality of users of the social networking system.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein sending, in the communication channelexternal to the social networking system, the digest communication fordisplay to the user comprises sending the digest communications during atime period when the user is not engaged with the social networkingsystem.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, in the communicationchannel external to the social networking system, the digestcommunication for display to the user comprises sending the digestcommunications at a first specified frequency.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein sending, in the communication channel external to the socialnetworking system, the digest communication for display to the usercomprises sending the digest communications at a second specifiedfrequency after a time period when the user is not engaged with thesocial networking system.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingidentifying one or more additional users of the social networking systemhaving highest measures of relatedness with the user.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising omitting from the digest communicationsdescriptive information about the activities.
 8. The method of claim 1further comprising: categorizing the plurality of notifications into aplurality of types; and separately locating the plurality of types inthe digest communications.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingdefining one of the plurality of types to include at least one from thegroup consisting of notifications, friend identifications, and topstories.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a digestcommunication further comprises: for each of the created notifications,identifying one or more activity types of the corresponding rankedactivity of the notification, the digest comprising a plurality ofregions, each region includes one or more notifications of a particularactivity type.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a digestcommunication further comprises: determining the engagement level of theuser with the social networking system during a specified period oftime; determining a threshold user engagement level based at least inpart on prior interactions of one or more social networking system userwith the social networking system; comparing the engagement level of theuser with the threshold user engagement level; and determining whetherto generate notifications for the user based on the comparison.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising generating notifications for theuser based at least in part on a determination that the engagement levelof the user is less than the threshold user engagement level.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising ceasing generating notificationsfor the user based at least in part on a determination that theengagement level of the user is greater than or equal to the thresholduser engagement level.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprisingresuming the notifications for the user based receiving an additionalselection of the one or more notification settings from the user.
 15. Asystem comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storinginstructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to:provide one or more notification settings to a user of a socialnetworking system, the notification settings specifying one or moretypes of activities of one or more additional users of the socialnetworking system; receive a selection of one or more of thenotification settings from the user; identify a plurality of activitiesof the additional users of the social networking system that arespecified by the selected notification settings; identify one or more ofthe additional users who are related to the identified activities;determine a measure of relatedness between the user and each of theidentified additional users; rank the identified plurality of activitiesbased at least in part on the determined measure of relatedness for theidentified additional users associated with the identified plurality ofactivities; select a set of the identified activities based on theranking; create by a processor, a notification for each of the selectedactivities; generate a digest communication that comprises the creatednotifications; and send, in a communication channel external to thesocial networking system, the digest communication for display to theuser.
 16. A non-transitory computer-storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computersystem to perform a computer-implemented method comprising: providingone or more notification settings to a user of a social networkingsystem, the notification settings specifying one or more types ofactivities of one or more additional users of the social networkingsystem; receiving a selection of one or more of the notificationsettings from the user; identifying a plurality of activities of theadditional users of the social networking system that are specified bythe selected notification settings; identifying one or more of theadditional users who are related to the identified activities;determining a measure of relatedness between the user and each of theidentified additional users; ranking the identified plurality ofactivities based at least in part on the determined measure ofrelatedness for the identified additional users associated with theidentified plurality of activities; selecting a set of the identifiedactivities based on the ranking; creating by a processor, a notificationfor each of the selected activities; generating a digest communicationthat comprises the created notifications; and sending, in acommunication channel external to the social networking system, thedigest communication for display to the user.